About this Author

College chemistry, 1983

The 2002 Model

After 10 years of blogging. . .

Derek Lowe, an Arkansan by birth, got his BA from Hendrix College and his PhD in organic chemistry from Duke before spending time in Germany on a Humboldt Fellowship on his post-doc. He's worked for several major pharmaceutical companies since 1989 on drug discovery projects against schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, diabetes, osteoporosis and other diseases.
To contact Derek email him directly: derekb.lowe@gmail.com
Twitter: Dereklowe

March 22, 2006

A Lengthy Day

Posted by Derek

Well, it was a long day at the Wonder Drug Factory - I got in early to start a large reaction, and took it through a workup and column during the rest of the day. I'm taking tomorrow off to take my kids out and around, and since people were waiting on the stuff I made today, or so I'm told, there had better be something missing from the batch when I come back. (Of course, I don't have much room to get haughty, since the reason that there's a shortage was because I made the wrong isomer of the stuff by mistake last time. Ah, how we laughed, except me.)

So rather than crank out something aggressively substandard tonight, I'll leave everyone to their own devices. A run up and down the blogroll at left should be enough to impair your productivity - I'll see everyone on Friday.

First you tell us you shot a stir bar through a pear flask, and now you're saying you made the wrong isomer?!?

I am sure the legions of postdocs and grad students out there will be relieved to know "stuff happens" even to the best.

Derek, go hang out with kiddos and sharpen that axe!

I enjoy your column and read it daily.

I would like to share an idea I have for a reality TV show for synthesis geeks like us:

-it is based on the Iron Chef model
-two hot shot chemists get a structure and list of available material to use and have 5 days to prepare the compound in min. 95% purity (structurally verified by NMR and HRMS)
-the compound will likely require 6-8 steps and will either contain one chiral center or a double bond of defined geometry

The producer will condense the show into a half hour by showing the key moments of success or faiure (eg, after a tlc is developed or an NMR spectrum is obtained) or any other moment of intense anxiety accompanied by strong language.

A series would be made of the show ala March Madness pitting the final two in the series finale. The winner of the whole shebang would be offered a prize of $500,000. Contestants at any degree level or age will be eligible.